Arts & Ideas magazine Nanci Griffith: Still Spinning Her Contradictory Magic by Barbara McKenna This story originally appeared in Arts & Ideas magazine (Vo. 2, No. 1), a publication of Arts & Lectures at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It's a hard life, it's a hard life It's the oddest thing. You're listening to Nanci Griffith, singing along with her, feeling a Sunday-morning-hallelujah kind of elation deep inside, and then you realize what you're belting out is something like: I'm working on a morning flight to anywhere but here For more than 20 years, Griffith has been spinning this contradictory magic---voicing heartache and hope, distilling redemption from despair. She sings about hard times and hard luck with an authenticity and clarity that transforms lamentation into benediction. I will drink my winter wine... when I get home I'll change my
mind The Grammy-winning musician has always defied classification, writing with the poetic and earthy flair of a folk artist, but often creating pop-like arrangements, and always singing with a sweet, soft Texas accent that is distinctly country. The crossover style hurt Griffith early in her career, when neither the country world nor the pop world would embrace her music. But as audiences grew more sophisticated in the 1980s, Griffith, along with kindred artists like Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakum, Emmylou Harris, and John Prine, began to find a growing audience for her folk/country/pop mix. Life is full of finer things Griffith herself once offered up the term "folkabilly" to describe her work, but these days that offering doesn't do justice to Griffith's ever-increasing musical dexterity. Her last album, Dust Bowl Symphony (1999, Elecktra), is a perfect example of Griffin's versatility, and also an indication of how the artist has grown in recent years. The album is a retrospective of her career, performed by Griffith, her Blue Moon Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra. Recorded in 1999, Dust Bowl Symphony takes some of Griffin's most popular songs ("Love at the Five and Dime," "It's a Hard Life," "Late Night Grande Hotel") to new levels. As Griffith puts it, "I decided it was time to pay tribute to my own songs, to give them the opportunity to mature and be adult." She's the salt of the earth The Texas-born Griffith began performing casually when she was 14. She continued to perform as a sideline throughout college and during her days as a kindergarten teacher. In 1977 she let go of her day job and began to concentrate on her music full time. In 1984, after she hooked up with producer Jim Rooney and released her third album, Once in a Very Blue Moon, Griffith started getting national attention. In 1986 she formed the Blue Moon Orchestra, which still backs her up these days. She released her fourth album that year (Last of the True Believers), which became the release to establish Griffith as an artist with staying power. After struggling to find a niche for her unique sound for nearly a decade, Griffith hit her mark. It may have taken a while but, still, Griffith avoided her worst nightmare--becoming "the flavor of the month." Her eclectic talents have given Griffith opportunities for a diversity of collaborations--she has performed with everyone from the Irish-based The Chieftans to Hootie and the Blowfish to the Boston Symphony Orchestra to Lucinda Williams. Then you are calling It's been an amazing journey for Griffith, who has received numerous Grammy nomination and awards, collaborated with just about every musician on the planet except Mick Jagger, recorded 15 albums, and won a battle with breast cancer a few years back. Now happily ensconced in Nashville, the artist is in the thick of recording her 16th album, and doing the thing she loves best--taking her show on the road and playing for live audiences. Dance a little closer to me |